The original Dragon Ball had loads of epic music. The opening and ending are great, but what really takes the cake is "Moeru Heart De ~ Red Ribbon Gun Wo Yattsukero ". The Red Ribbon Army saga might've dragged out at times, but playing this just before the climax to recap everything really made it larger than life.
If we are going to talk about the opening themes, then we must talk about the opening theme of Dragon Ball, Makafushigi Adobencha (translated in English as Mystical Adventure)! It's hard for me to describe how awesome it is. Just... listen and enjoy!
Mezase Tenkaichi, which played during quite a few epic scenes from the various tournaments throughout the series.
Hironobu Kageyama being one who has his own section in the Crowning Music of Awesome department made a large number of hits for dragon ball, the first that comes to mind being Spirit vs Spirit. For those not in the know this was the theme that reflected Gohan's emotions when he fought Cell.
The movies were his bread and butter, Hero summed up the epic battle against Metal Cooler very well. Also, You are the Hero Guy
He did a bang up job in the games too, Super Survivor easily comes to mind.
Unmei no Hi ~Tamashii tai Tamashii~, or "The Day of Fate: Spirit vs Spirit", or just "Gohan's SSJ 2 Theme". Plays at the original planned endpoint of the series, when Gohan finally actually gets mad enough to fight back at full power against Cell. One of the biggest crimes the dub makers did was replace this song with pointless, emotionless narration by Gohan's voice actor.
Regardless of what you think about the English dub of Dragon Ball Z, Faulconer Productions wrote some pretty epic music for it. This Troper's favorites include: Vegeta - Super Saiyan, which usually meant Vegeta was doing something totally awesome, Ginyu Transformation, generally played when a major villain died or during other particularly epic moments, and SSJ3 Power-Up... does that one really need explaining?
Pretty much everyone's "Power's Up" music is going to be crowning moment. Even Krillin, who unfortunately didn't get too many moments to shine as the series went on, gets an amazing one.
Also pretty much all of Cell's music, which goes from epictocreepy depending on the mood he's in, especially Perfect Cell Runs and Imperfect Cell Theme (which made the only scene it was used completely in, stalking the heroes in an abandoned airport hangar, complete awesome). And then there's the epic redoing of Perfect Cell Runs that plays after he comes back from blowing himself up, stronger than ever.
Piccolo's theme sets the tone for pretty much every moment that Piccolo has, whether it be getting ready to go to a fight he's not sure he'll survive, to watching over the world as everything goes to hell. It's serious and determined, yet calm and serene. A perfect match for his character, and one of the most awesome songs in the show.
Ironically these songs caused many crappy AMV's to be made.
I'm confused by the lack of Broly! They hyped him the hell up, and were even able to acquire the rights to a Pantera song just to use as in the movie. It's pretty much his theme. I present, 10's.
Dragon Ball Kai wouldn't be true to its namesake if it didn't have some epic music, one of which is the Ochestrated version of Dragon Soul. Take a good listen. Not to mention the brief rock/metal music that plays while fighting Frieza in episode 40.
That would be Only a Chilling Elegy... Frieza's new theme song. It contains Ominous Japanese Chanting followed by rock music. The opening also plays in episode 37 when Frieza impales Krillin.
Yushi No Gaisen translated as "The Braveheart's Triumphant Return", one of Goku's themes. Used for his "I AM" speech, and this time it was accurately dubbed as well
On the topic of songs with "Braveheart" in them, we also have Kyousha He Idomu Yuushi, translated as "The Braveheart Challenges The Strong", used in pretty much any scene where the good guys start kicking butt.
Formidable Warrior was played almost every episode and for good reason, it was awesome
Once Kai reached the Android saga, the music quality jumped way up, with the Vol III OST. Songs that range from epicadventure and thrill to suspense and despair
This fan remix, which has the first four versions of "Dragon Soul" edited together to form a quartet. It. Is. AWESOME. Funimation must have liked this idea, because guess what the version they did for their volume 7 DVD set was?
This Troper isn't even a fan of rap music, but Step Into The Grand Tour, AKA the rap opening to Dragon Ball GT has a Rock The Dragon-type of badassery to it. The original Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku by Field of View fits the first season's "quest for the dragon balls" premise, but as soon as they start fighting Baby(which, mind you, is when the show actually starts getting good), the rap/rock opening really sums up the epicness of the whole thing.
You can't tell me that the Super 17 theme isn't kick-ass. It's the only song in the soundtrack that doesn't sound the exact same — no wonder it's so popular.
Video Games
Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo has Power of Dreamer. Especially awesome in that they brought Hiroki Takahashi (the singer of Makafushigi Adventure) back to sing it.
The Archipelago theme from Budokai 3. Really makes you wanna beat the crap out of the AI.
